Acne and Milk: Why Does Milk Cause Acne And 4 Steps to Stop It
You may have heard that milk is an inflammatory food that causes acne. But do you know why and that you can actually get back to drinking milk and having other dairy products while keeping your skin clear? As a functional medicine nutritional practitioner I never settle with telling people they can’t eat a specific food anymore. In my experience with acne and gut healing in my own life as well as with my clients, quality raw dairy is actually a very nutritious food that can play a key role in healing the gut and other major health concerns. I’m going to show you exactly why milk causes acne and the 4 steps to start reversing this reaction so you can get back to having dairy and clear skin.
Why Does Milk Cause Acne?
Reason #1- Poor Quality Milk
Milk causes acne because the quality of conventional dairy sold in grocery stores, found at restaurants, and probably in your refrigerator right now is dead food. Most dairy farms feed their cows corn and soy which is not the proper food for the ruminant. This causes cows to become malnourished and sick. In turn, the cows are given antibiotics and synthetic hormones, like rBST, which ends up in their milk. The antibiotics and increased hormones like IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor1) from dairy wreak havoc on your own digestive system and health, causing acne and inflammation.
Even organic grass-fed dairy is of concern because pasteurization is required to sell milk in grocery stores. Industrialized dairy (organic and conventional) uses ultra-pasteurization, homogenization, skimmed, and powderized processes which further degrade the beneficial components that you would have gotten from milk, rendering the proteins unrecognizable to the human body.
Reason #2- Leaky Gut
Food sensitivities are the second biggest reason that you get acne when you drink milk. Since most of the dairy in the United States is ultra-processed and virtually unrecognized by the digestive system, many of the milk proteins are undigested and begin to feed opportunistic bacteria in your gut (dysbiosis) leading to intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut).
The intestines have two major roles:
1) to absorb nutrients; and
2) to keep out invaders.
When there is damage to the microbiome (dysbiosis) and the intestinal wall (leaky gut), the intestines can’t optimally perform these roles. So invaders get into the bloodstream and nutritional deficiencies ensue.
Leaky gut is characterized by high cytokines (immune cells) found in the blood, specifically ones that decrease the function of insulin receptors, beta-cells, and blood sugar handling mechanisms. This leads to insulin resistance, diabetes, and more inflammation. It is this inflammation that creates more damage to the gut along with other organs, specifically the liver.
When there is leaky gut, there is an increase of endotoxins produced by the dysbiotic bacteria living in your intestines. These endotoxins seep into the bloodstream and are filtered by the liver. If the liver has been damaged because of a leaky gut, then these toxins are flushed out of the body through other detox pathways, specifically your skin, lymph, and kidneys. This is why leaky gut is why you have acne when you drink milk.
Shukla, G., Singh, S., & Verma, A. (2013). Oral Administration of the Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Ameliorates Gut Morphology and Physiology in Malnourished-Giardia intestinalis-Infected BALB/c Mice. ISRN parasitology, 2013, 762638. https://doi.org/10.5402/2013/762638
Reason #3- Insulin Resistance
Drinking milk increases insulin in the body. These insulin spikes can lead to insulin resistance which contributes to overall inflammation in the body. Leaky gut can also contribute to insulin resistance which is another reason why you get acne when you drink milk.
Underlying inflammation caused by the insulin resistance can further disrupt other hormone balances in the body. Acne around your chin or mouth is a sign that your acne is from hormone imbalances. If your body is out of balance, insulin spikes raise androgen hormones which are known to increase sebum production and contribute to oily skin.
Specific milk proteins like casein and whey promote excess IGF-1, sebum production, inflammation, skin cell production, and androgen hormones.
Reason #4- Genetics: A1 vs. A2 Beta-Casein
You may have heard that goat’s and sheep’s milk are easier to digest. This is true for many people because these kinds of milk don’t contain the A1 beta-casein protein.
Casein is found in two forms, A1 beta-casein and A2 beta-casein. The type of casein found in milk is differentiated based on the genetics of the animal. In cows, A2 beta-casein is known as the original form of casein because A1 is a fairly recent (a few thousand years ago) genetic mutations.
Since A1 cows tend to produce more milk, the A2 beta-casein has been almost bred out of existence in US industrialized dairy farms. It is unfortunate that A1 cows are the norm because A2 beta-casein does not produce histamine during digestion whereas A1 beta-casein does.
Histamine in the body is an immune reaction and can lead to inflammation. This is another reason why industrialized processed dairy in the United States causes acne. Most industrialized dairy farm herds possess an A1 gene and are contributing to an inflammatory response in your body.
How you can Reverse your Dairy Sensitivity and Have Clear Skin
Now that you know why dairy is a problem for your acne, you have a couple solutions to choose from. First is to eliminate all dairy from your diet for about 30 days. This is a great method to start seeing clear skin quickly, but as you have just read about leaky gut, taking the food away forever isn’t going to fix the problem.
Leaky gut will still exist and you might continue to be reactive to more and more foods. The second option is to address the root cause of the dairy sensitivities and acne. These are the four steps that will start you on your acne healing journey.
Add in Healing Foods First
Taking food out of the diet seems to be many alternative health practitioners’ favorite thing to do. Well it isn’t mine. So, to start, I always recommend replacing and adding new gut healing foods first. These foods and sometimes supplements include meat stock and broth, fermented foods, organ meats, non-starchy vegetables, and perhaps some digestive enzymes to improve digestion.
Remove the Triggers and Infections
This can be one of the more important steps to healing the gut. You have to stop injuring an inflamed digestive system in order for it to heal.
There can be many triggers causing your leaky gut. These could be foods, chemicals, stress, over-exercise, under-exercise, mold exposure, infections, etc. The simplest place to start is with an elimination diet and cleaning out your toxic household and beauty products. Here's a great resource to get started.
Rebuild/Reinoculate the Gut
This stage focuses more on fermented foods and rebuilding your microbiome. Beneficial supplements and lifestyle additions for this phase include probiotics, pre-biotics, butyric acid, and fasting.
You will want to start slowly with probiotics. It also can be advantageous to do testing to see what types of probiotics you are specifically low in. But generally, more bifidobacterium is needed. Include foods like Lacto-fermented vegetables (kimchi, sauerkraut, pickles), kombucha, yogurt, and kefir.
In this phase finding a raw milk source to make your own yogurt and kefir is ideal, preferably from A2/A2 cows, goats, or sheep. Raw milk contains many of the vitamins and minerals, like A, D, K, magnesium, zinc, B1, and omega 3’s, that are needed to heal the gut. This makes it an optimal food when tolerated to speed up the healing process.
Prebiotics help to feed the beneficial flora that you are rebuilding. Prebiotic foods include asparagus, garlic, onions, carrots, radishes, cucumber, celery, flax, and psyllium, just to name a few.
Butyric acid is a short-chain fatty acid that your good bacteria are supposed to produce. These fatty acids are fuel for your intestinal wall and for other good bacteria. If you don’t have enough good bacteria to start with, butyric acid supplementation can be a great place to kickstart the positive feedback loop.
Fasting overnight for at least 12 hrs is a great way to increase microbial diversity. This method is often overlooked when healing the gut!
Repair the Intestinal Wall
This step is supported by all of the previous stages in reversing your dairy sensitivity and healing your gut. Continuing meat stock and collagen which contain the many amino acids required to help rebuild the intestines is the first priority. But, there have been some great research articles highlighting specific nutrients that are needed to utilize these amino acids properly. Some of these include Omega-3 fatty acids, Glutamine, Zinc, Curcumin, Vitamin D, Vitamin A , Vitamin C, and B vitamins.
The process to reverse your dairy sensitivity can take months to years depending on how severely toxins have affected your body and the quality of food that you are using. But, this method has brought myself and many of my nutrition clients hope that they can someday eat dairy and have clear skin!
The Key Points
There are 4 main reasons why milk and conventional dairy products like cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, whey, and casein protein powders cause acne. The first is quality, second is leaky gut, third is insulin resistance, and lastly genetics.
Each of these reasons has real lifestyle change solutions to allow you to get clear skin and have nutritious raw milk in your diet too.
Solution 1: You can start with an elimination diet by avoiding all dairy for 30 days
Solution 2: Pair that nicely with a Leaky Gut healing protocol to help resolve the root cause of your dairy sensitivity.
Solution 3: Eat a paleolithic, low carbohydrate diet to prevent or reverse insulin resistance.
Solution 4: Get high-quality raw milk dairy that is well tolerated from A2/A2 cows, or goats or sheep.
FAQS
Can raw milk cause acne?
Yes, raw milk can still cause acne. This is often due to the timing of raw milk introduction and how it is consumed. I often see that people who react to raw milk still have a gut infection that is causing the reaction. I also see that once this infection is resolved and raw milk is introduced in a slow methodical manner, using fermented dairy first, it is more tolerated.
Does Lactose-free milk cause acne?
The short answer is yes because it is a processed industrialized food. Lactose-free milk is just milk with added lactase enzymes to it. We don’t find this is nature unless the dairy is fermented as yogurt or kefir, which contains significantly less lactose than milk that is not-fermented. Though lactose-free milk has less sugar, the other milk proteins (whey and casein) are still intact and can contribute to increased sebum production and androgen hormones.
What type of alternative dairy do I drink if I can’t have cows, goat, or sheep milk?
If you are eliminating dairy and trying to heal your gut without access or tolerance to raw milk from A2/A2 cows, goat, or sheep, you can enjoy many alternative milks.
You should be very careful with store-bought alternative milks that contain many additives that harm a damaged gut, like xanthan gum, guar gum, carrageenan, sunflower, canola, and safflower oils.
My favorite store-bought milk brands include:
coconut milk (canned, Simple Native Forest brand)
almond milk (MALK brand)
You can make any kind of nut or seed milk with this recipe here. The best I recommend for gut healing are:
Hemp milk